page_title: Nuclear power in Italy
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Nuclear power in Italy / History / Early years
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Centrale nucleare "Enrico Fermi" di Trino (VC) sul fiume Po
context_page_description: Nuclear power in Italy is a controversial topic. Italy started to produce nuclear energy in the early 1960s, but all plants were closed by 1990 following the Italian nuclear power referendum.
  As of 2018, Italy is one of only two countries, along with Lithuania, that completely phased out nuclear power for electricity generation after having operational reactors.
  An attempt to change the decision was made in 2008 by the government, which called the nuclear power phase-out a "terrible mistake, the cost of which totalled over €50 billion".
  Minister of Economic Development Claudio Scajola proposed to build as many as 10 new reactors, with the goal of increasing the nuclear share of Italy's electricity supply to about 25% by 2030.
  However, following the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents, the Italian government put a one-year moratorium on plans to revive nuclear power.
  On 11—12 June 2011, Italian voters passed a referendum to cancel plans for new reactors. Over 94% of the electorate voted in favor of the construction ban, with 55% of the eligible voters participating, making the vote binding.
context_section_description: The history of nuclear power in Italy starts at the end of 1946, when the Cise, a small centre for nuclear energy research, was created. A few years later, a public research institute linked to the CNR, the Cnrn (Comitato Nazionale per le Ricerche Nucleari, National Committee for Nuclear Research), was founded. The Cnrn became an autonomous research entity in 1960, the Cnen (Comitato Nazionale per l'Energia Nucleare, National Committee for Nuclear Energy).
  During all the 1950s there was a common belief that nuclear energy would have provided within few years, safely and economically, all the energy needed. Italy ordered between 1956 and 1958 3 different reactors from 3 different companies: Westinghouse, General Electric and Npcc. The reactors were built in Trino Vercellese, Sessa Aurunca and Latina and were all completed by 1964.
  At that time electric companies in Italy were private and the power plants were built by different private companies. However the electricity sector was nationalized in 1962 with the creation of a new corporation responsible for production and distribution of electricity in the country: Enel. This factor is thought to be the reason for Italy's halt in nuclear investments. In fact, only one reactor was ordered in the following decade: construction of the Caorso power plant started in 1970 and was completed in 1978. At the same time, Italy initiated a nuclear weapons program to produce its own nuclear weapons essentially under the Italian Navy control. CAMEN (then CISAM) close Pisa was used for this aim. It was stopped in the '70s to join NATO nuclear sharing. For this sector Italy has produced the IRBM Alfa and other air vectors. The former Italian President Francesco Cossiga declared officially in Italy secrets about nuclear weapons subject like all military ones are generally hidden by silence or lies.
caption: Enrico Fermi nuclear power plant in Trino, 2010.
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